Kyron claims Culham Victory! Apico BSMA National Round 3 – Race Report and Results

Round three of the Apico BSMA national was held at the popular sandy circuit of Culham in Oxfordshire and with a forecasted mixed bag of weather it was luckily a dry weekend but for a couple of short showers! Track conditions had to have been the best they have been for as long as I can remember, tacky in Saturday’s practice and then perfect the whole weekend with plenty of moisture in the ground providing some top-class action.

Report and Images by Ady Cowshall – Images of Speed

The Senior youth riders had the pleasure of a smooth track as they started proceedings off this weekend and these guys really made the most of it with an electrifying pace. As usual, the class was split into 125/250f but run concurrently. Travis Reynolds hit the front but was quickly passed by eventual winner Leon Williams and then followed by Harvey James who kept Williams honest throughout the race. Behind the lead duo, things changed shape rapidly as Reynolds dropped down the order, Lewis Wiltshire, Joe Beaumont and Jack Peacey all had problems allowing an easier path through the field for Louis Vincent bringing with him Ben Zeale. Tye Jones made a charge through from a poor start to round out the top five.

Lewis Glynn made it a gate to flag win in the second moto leaving James and Vincent to trade places through the moto, James getting the better at the end. Williams could only manage a fourth ahead of Jones. Race three saw Glynn out of the blocks again but this time Williams came through passing firstly the fast-starting Reynolds then James, finally Vincent to get on the rear wheel of Glynn for a nail-biting finish. Fourth time of asking and it was Williams getting the better of Glynn by a narrow margin, Wiltshire and Beaumont again getting good starts but having problems leaving Vincent and Jones to a race long battle passing each other on what seemed to be every lap! The final moto saw Williams fitness do him proud with a comfortable margin of victory after Glynn went down while leading, over a closely fought battle between James, Zeale and Vincent. Vincent made a mistake and had to charge hard to re-pass Zeale and challenge James but James held him off to take another second place.

Big wheel 85’s came onto track next and with some quick wildcard riders, it was Kyron Carron who set pole in qualifying ahead of Corey Gordon and Ben Casey. Moto one saw why Carron qualified top of the pile as he soared off to a comfortable win ahead of Casey who had to dispose of Alfie Crealock-Lovell before setting off in pursuit. William Murphy overhauled Crealock-Lovell in the latter stages to take third and championship leader Ben Sullivan came through to fifth. Moto two saw a carbon copy of moto one but with riders reversed, Casey got away and Carron had to get past Crealock-Lovell to set off in pursuit as the rest of the top five panned out the same. Race three had Casey out front and this time a quick pass on Crealock-Lovell by Carron made it a far closer race between the top two, but it was Carron that had to sit in the roost of Casey as they crossed the line in that order and Crealock-Lovell this time held off Murphy and with Sullivan overtrying, on an ailing bike he hit the deck and not only lost race position but championship lead! With Sullivan out Gordon utilized his qualifying speed to snatch his first top five.

Moto 4 saw another epic battle as this time Murphy holeshot. Casey was quickly through into the lead followed by Carron and those pair cleared off leaving Murphy to fend off Crealock-Lovell as that pair crossed the finish seperated by less than a second! A detuned Sullivan didn’t get the best of starts and could only manage sixth behind a great ride by Sebi Moore. Final race for the big wheels had all the drama of a BBC soap, Casey hit the front, Carron was nowhere to be seen but Crealock-Lovell sensed a win was on the cards and was pushing Casey hard, passing him then getting re-passed. Casey didn’t need the win for the overall and it seemed his pursuer knew this. With time running out Casey who was the only one still clearing the big downhill drop off cased it and cartwheeled over the big banked berm at the bottom breaking his collar bone in the process and handing victory to Crealock-Lovell and losing the overall to Carron!

Small wheel 85’s were next out and with no Danny Flaude present Reegan Rogers looked to take over the championship lead but it was going to be a tough weekend after only qualifying in eleventh. Moto one saw Shane Jones and Lucas Moncrieff leave the rest of the field for dead with well over 30 seconds on third place. That was taken by wildcard Zane Stephens after fighting his way past Cailen Griffiths and Ruben Alway. Rogers passed Charlie James to get himself up to sixth to gain some valuable points in the championship chase.

Moto two had the top three out of the gate stay that way to the flag with Jones again in front of Moncrieff and Alway in third. Griffiths had a tremendous ride through the field to catch Rogers in the closing stages for fourth. The penultimate race had Moncrieff at the front hounded by Jones until his pass midway only to throw it down the track on the final lap gifting the win to Moncrieff and only able to remount in eighth and handing the overall to Moncrieff. Stephens who’d been running third suddenly moved into second while Gethin Morgan’s race got better and better after passing Rogers early on and then Alway had the bonus of a podium place due to Jones crashing. Griffiths was on a late-race charge to pull through to fourth ahead of Alway. The last race had Jones name all over it and Moncrieff was at the back! It looked like Moncrieff’s gift horse of the overall was in jeopardy. Alway was fighting for his life to hold second place, with would you believe it, Moncrieff and Stephens!

Auto class was stacked with a few extra wildcards making it almost a full line up but there was no one able to stop the relentless winning machine of Cohen Jagielski. So far winning every race in the championship and putting another five wins under his belt at Culham. So it was all about who was going to finish where behind him. Jett Gardner looked favourite to give him some sort of battle being the one closest on time after qualifying. Taking Jagielski out of the equation the first race was a tight one with Jamie Currie just piping Gardner to the line after Gardner came past earlier in the race Currie held onto him and make a last-ditch effort to take the place back. A lot of riders fell foul to the going, Jacob Hackett being one of them, but not giving up and charged back through to take fourth just in front of Oaklan Winnalll who had made passes left right and centre to get there.

Moto 2 Jagielski had company, Gardner was within striking distance but no mistakes were made by the leader, Hackett got third with Currie and Winnall rounding out the top five. Moto three Gardner go down on the opening lap and not being able to restart until the pack had passed putting him out of contention. Then Currie threw away a solid third place after Hackett had passed him Winnall inherited third Jimmy Whiston and Rafe Symons battled it out for fourth pushed by Freddie Gurney. Moto four saw the top six all very spaced out (not on drugs) with the closest battle being that for sixth between Whiston and Tommy Wood. Final encounter was another 1-2-3 for Jagielski, Gardner and Hackett then Currie, Winnall and a fast closing Whiston. Behind it has to be said that the lap times were all so close seventh through to tenth could of gone anyway!

The premier adult class saw some fresh blood come in to mix it up but it was Dan Maule who hit the front in moto one, albeit briefly as he hit the ground allowing an easy pass for the lead by wildcard Drew Anderson. Anderson put in a blistering pace to maintain a small gap over Charlie Razzell as the pair yoyoed back on fourth by very small margins in lap times. All this time championship leader Jake Curtis-Stevens was clawing time back as he moved into third and got within ten seconds of the lead duo by the time the clock had run down. Son of 500GP ace Bradley Wheeler held down a lonely fourth while Carl Jones came under attack from the screaming 125 GasGas of George Hopkins with less than two seconds splitting them as they crossed the timing line on the final lap.

Moto two’s Apico holeshot went to Wheeler but making up for his era in moto one Nathan Frayne was gunning for victory and passed Wheeler in a bid to break the pack. Anderson had selected the wrong gear on the start and was coming through the pack like a hot knife through butter, by lap three he was in front, Razzell got caught napping as Anderson passed him as he got stuck behind Jones and Wheeler for a few laps. Curtis-Stephens weekend and championship ended soon into the race with a big off resulting in a broken fib leaving the door wide open as also absent from the meeting with a broken ankle was the Welsh wizard Glen Phillips. Frayne now well in with a championship shot ended in third with Wheeler coming back strong on Jones in the dying stages to nab another fourth. The third race saw Anderson fly out of the gate and pour on the power setting the fastest lap by almost five seconds over the next best to pull a comfortable gap which he then managed to the line. Wheeler had been passed early on by Razzell but came back strong in the last few laps to close him right down to less than a second in front of an excited Phil Gee commentating. Frayne held a comfortable fourth gaining a few more points on what is now a wide-open championship. Maule also realizing he’s in with a shout pushed another championship contender, Jason Down hard to get sixth behind Down. Moto four saw Anderson make light work of the fast-starting pair of Frayne and Jones and then again back it down to manage the race win. Behind him, Frayne was giving Razzell a hard time and finally made a pass stick on the second attempt getting a well deserved second. Hopkins was on fire as he scythed his way up the leaderboard to take fourth off Wheeler at the end. The last race of the weekend caught out Razzell as he endoed his way out giving an easier ride to the rest of the pack. Anderson cleared off again and Frayne continued his quest to gain more points on his closest rival Jones with second spot. Wheeler got third while Down pushed hard to claim fourth over what must now be championship leader Jones.

Vets were next out with a combined field of over 35’s and over 45’s scored separately but racing together. The fastest in qualifying was wildcard Tom Chesterman but that was where it ended as a DNF in race one and race 2 didn’t see him out any further. It was done to usual business resumed as younger classed Jamie Dobson and old boy Darren King locked bars. Dobson and King came out fast with Chesterman in tow but he was soon gone making a mistake and dropping down the order, later to retire. Dobson had the edge and held onto a safe but not secure lead to the end. Some way behind this pair it was the screaming 125 of Paul Wildman Willis hounding Sam Callow on the big 450 Willis was passed on several occasions but outpowered in the sandy going having to settle for fourth and Neil Griffiths crept up the leaderboard to take fifth.

Moto two’s Apico holeshot taken by Dobson with Chesterman in close pursuit, King soon displaced him to take second and Chesterman again disappeared leaving the top five the same as race one. Race three King was determined to try to make a break and hit the front closely followed by Dobson, over the next two laps they traded paint as they went back and forth for the lead untill Kings steam ran out or wisdom prevailed as they are in separate classes! Moto four had the same end result but it took longer to pan out as for half the race Bryan Tucker and Jason Dallimore were occupying spot four and five. Moto five was another repeat of the same top runners.

With a couple of the championship leaders not present the adult B group had a new light shone on it and the top three qualifiers were all within a second of each other some close racing was expected. It was Brad Pounder and Dan Crocker who got off to a flying start in moto one, Crocker moving past to take the lead until Jack Milstead moved up from a top ten start to move into the top spot holding that till the end. Crocker had a lonely run in second while Thor Tucker threw his hammer down to overhaul Pounder to take third and a fast coming Jamie ‘Moosecan’ Hibberd rounded out the top five.

Moto two Pounder again got out of the blocks well holding the lead a little longer before fading back to fifth. Milstead quickly moved into second but was caught by the screaming 125 of Liam Gunning who then took the lead and it wasn’t until three-quarters distance before Milstead had found the lines to get back past and into the lead. ‘Moosecan’ bought his factory lookalike KTM home for third while Crocker was the last man past Pounder into fourth. Moto three was lead away by Crocker but his bike seized before crossing the line for the first lap leaving Tucker in the lead with Matt Fuller hot on his heels but it only took Milstead a lap to find his way to the front. Pounder crashed out on the first lap ruining his chance of a top-five overall. Fuller got past Tucker in the final laps and then got caught on the last lap by the #25 of ‘Moosecan’ while fifth was taken after several late passes by championship contender Martin Luckwell in his first decent result of the weekend.

In the fourth moto Fuller again got out front only to be caught and passed by Milstead once more, Milstead going on to another victory. Fuller then came under fire from ‘Moosecan’ and Gunning to drop down to fourth but regrouped and took back third off ‘Moosecan’ while Gunning had moved up to second. Crocker then moved up to challenge the tiring #25 as the pair swapped places several times. Moto five had a new front runner in Adam Gustafson but Gunning was going to shoot past for the lead and in the same lap, Milstead hit the deck dropping outside the top ten and with ‘Moosecan’ and Gunning at the front his overall looked in danger. Gunning took the win followed by ‘Moosecan’ then Pounder had his best result in third with Fuller getting a terrible start coming up to fourth from outside the top twenty! Remarkably Milstead remounted to come back to fifth.

The final group out were the juniors on the 65cc bikes with a full lineup with a lot of wildcard riders the junior championship was wide open. In qualifying, there was a three-rider breakaway, Olly Waters, Jenson Severn and Joel Winstanley-Dawson and in all but one race they were the top three, Severn making one mistake dropping him out of the podium places. Moto one it was Waters from Winstanley-Dawson with Severn third. Casey Lister moved up several places to come through to fourth with Junior Carroll-Stone fifth.

Race two the front runners were reversed, Severn still third Lister passing William Evans and Marty Spires for fourth with Spires taking fifth. Moto three and Waters went two-one down as Winstanley-Dawson made his Yamaha sing hanging off it like a rag doll. Severn was way down on the first lap and could only climb back to seventh. Chase Panter got the better of Marty Spires in the early going to hold third at the flag with Spires behind him and Evans taking fifth. Race four had Waters taking the number one spot to even the scorecard at two each, Severn was back to third, while Carroll-Stone got involved with both Spires and Panter eventually coming out fifth behind Panter. The final moto of the weekend and the closest battling group for the win went to Winstanley-Dawson after passing Waters mid-race to take victory by just two points. Severn was third again followed by Panter and Spires.

The next round moves onto the GP circuit of Foxhill and promises to be yet another busy weekend with registered riders needing to book in early or chance missing out on the many wildcard riders waiting in the wings for a place at this iconic venue.

Results

Auto’s

Junior 65’s

Small Wheel 85’s

Big Wheel 85’s

Senior 125’s

Senior Open

Vets over 35’s

Vets over 45’s

Adult A

Adult B